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Darkness
The Darkness, and its host the Dark One, is a magical entity featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It débuts in the first episode of the first season. History Nimue later created a vault for her own usage, and emerged as the Dark One to the public from this vault. She has turned her dark soul into a curse that allows her to live on beyond the death of her physical body, inhabiting the soul of whoever kills the current Dark One with the dagger, gifting that person with the Dark One's power. While the Darkness originated as Nimue's soul, it grows more powerful by assimilating the darkness of each soul that it passes on to as part of the Dark One curse. Because of this, the Darkness can manifest itself as every Dark One there ever was, even to the point of manifesting as all of them at the same time. Merlin takes the other half of Excalibur and binds Nimue to it - thus creating the Dark One's Dagger. Eventually, Nimue and Merlin meet again, but Merlin, in a moment of utter grief, becomes overpowered by Nimue, who transforms him into a tree. At some point, Merlin had created a special hat, capable of absorbing and accumulating magic. The hat is protected by the Apprentice from each person that takes on the Dark One's powers. Every Dark One tries to steal the hat, but none of them succeed. One day, the latest Dark One, Zoso, arrives in an attempt to open the guarded relic, only to be blasted away by the artifact's magic. Once the Apprentice informs the Dark One why his mission will never succeed, a beaten Zoso teleports away. Decades later, while Zoso is still the Dark One, the kingdom resorts to using children as soldiers in another Ogre Wars. Rumplestiltskin fears for the possibility of losing his child and flees away with him. But they are approached by a mysterious old man, who steers him towards stealing a magical dagger which can control the Dark One. Rumplestiltskin decides to steal the dagger from the Duke of the Frontlands, with the hopes of protecting Baelfire and turning the Dark One into a force for good. Once alone, Rumplestiltskin summons the Dark One and he stabs the entity with the dagger in a fit of blind rage. But he discovers the Dark One is the old man who told him about the dagger. Then Rumplestiltskin's own name replaces Zoso's on the dagger, and he gains the powers of the Dark One. }} }} }} After absorbing the Darkness, Emma disappears from Storybrooke, with her body reforming out of the Vault of the Dark One in the Enchanted Forest. Finding herself garbed in a cloak, she soon discovers that the Darkness, under a manifestation of Rumplestiltskin - one voice out of the many Dark Ones - is now her guide, and he intends to stay until she fully accepts her powers. Throughout the Camelot quest, the main goal of the heroes is to destroy the Darkness by finding Merlin. Once they succeed in doing so, Merlin reveals that he will be able to rid Emma of the Darkness once they reforge Excalibur using the Promethean Flame. While Emma and Merlin search for the Flame, Merlin reveals the truth behind the Darkness's origins, and Emma ends up in a battle against herself when the Darkness creates a mental image of Nimue in her mind. In order to get the dagger and reforge Excalibur, Arthur teams up with Zelena and gets her to use the tether spell Merlin used on the dagger to attach Merlin himself to the other half of Excalibur. Merlin is able to overcome Arthur's commands, and Emma and Hook get Excalibur back. Following this encounter, Hook's neck gets a minor cut from Excalibur, which Emma easily heals. However, a cut from Excalibur can never be fully healed, and the cut reopens just before Emma can reforge the sword, causing Hook to begin to die. Unwilling to let him die, Emma takes both halves of Excalibur and uses her magic to tether Hook to the sword instead of Merlin. The corrupted Darkness inside Merlin mysteriously flies out of Merlin as he says that it is too late, and after Emma is done with the transfer, her outfit magically changes and Hook is teleported away, emerging from the Vault as the second Dark One. }} After Hook opens a portal to the Underworld, all the souls of the deceased Dark Ones claim a living soul to replace their souls in the Underworld. When the heroes confront Hook and all the former dead Dark Ones, the spirit of Nimue magically chokes Emma. Hook realizes what kind of man he wants to be, using Excalibur, which he obtained by tricking Emma into giving it to him after she got it from Mr. Gold, to absorb the spirits of the Dark Ones. Hook begs his true love to kill him, destroying the Darkness and letting him die a hero. Emma reluctantly does this, destroying the sword, along with the Darkness's hold on her. Unbeknownst to Emma, Mr. Gold poured a potion to make the sword a magic "conduit", which transferred all the Dark Ones' magic to him. The next day, a grieving Emma hears whispering, following it to Mr. Gold Pawnbroker & Antiquities Dealer. Mr. Gold reveals his actions to Emma, showing her the Dark One's Dagger, the source of the whispering. Emma then threatens to tell Belle unless Mr. Gold helps her travel to the Underworld to rescue Hook. The new Dark One, reluctantly, opens a portal to the Underworld, leading Emma and company to the boat of Charon. }} Known Dark Ones *Nimue †''' (Original Dark One) *At least eighteen unnamed Dark Ones '''†File:511AreYouAlright.png File:511MomDad.png *Gorgon †''' *Zoso '''† *'Rumplestiltskin / Mr. Gold' *Emma Swan (Darkness removed) *Killian Jones (Darkness removed) Trivia |-|On-Screen Notes= On-Screen Notes *Rumplestiltskin, as the Dark One, appears in the title card for "In the Name of the Brother".File:212Title.PNG The Darkness appears in the title card for "Birth".File:508Title.png The hooded figures of all Dark Ones prior to Rumplestiltskin appear in the title card for "Swan Song".File:511Title.png *True love's kiss will not break a Dark One's curse if the Dark One likes the power and does not want to give it up.https://twitter.com/AndrewChambliss/status/650845303487131648 When the afflicted wants it, it is no longer a curse. Nor will true love's kiss work if both people involved are Dark Ones.https://twitter.com/InkTankGirl/status/666120732212989952 *According to Cora and Mr. Gold, when the Dark One is killed without the dagger, she/he will expel the power of the darkness, with no new Dark One, and the curse will "pass from this world". *The Darkness is immortal. This is a result of Nimue drinking the waters of the Holy Grail. *Dark Ones don't need sleep, as the power of the Darkness keeps them energized. Dark Ones such as Rumplestiltskin and Emma Swan developed hobbies to pass the time instead; Rumplestiltskin spun straw into gold and Emma made dreamcatchers. **However, they can and do sleep. *The waterfall in the pocket dimension inside the Vault of the Dark One is liquid darkness.File:504IWasWondering.png *All Dark Ones find it irresistible to make deals. *There is information about the Dark Ones written in the Dark One Chronicles. |-|Cultural References= Disney *When Emma emerges from vault, the Darkness (in the form of Rumplestiltskin) can be heard whistling "Whistle While You Work" from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Appearances *Dark One Rumplestiltskin appears in Henry's storybook in "Dreamcatcher".File:505RumplestiltskinStorybook.png File:505BelleRumpleStorybook.png *Dark One Mr. Gold is mentioned on the pawnshop sign in "Lady of the Lake"File:203RunningGrace.png and "Heart of the Matter".File:W111WelcomeToStorybrooke.png}} Note: "Archive" denotes archive footage. References }} ru:Тьма Category:Season One Characters Category:Season Two Characters Category:Season Three Characters Category:Season Four Characters Category:Season Five Characters Category:Season Six Characters Category:Once Upon a Time Characters Category:Deceased Characters Category:Enchanted Forest Characters Category:Storybrooke Characters